Join Barbara Kloos, Historic Collection Curator at Cosprop, her assistants Sage Foley and Annie Lloyd, and Keith Lodwick curator of the exhibition Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop, as they take an intimate look at a selection of historical garments from the John Bright Collection.
The in-house dress archive allows designers and Cosprop’s staff to connect with the physical world of the characters they dress for film, theatre and TV. It holds around 8000 items of historical clothing and has grown organically with the business as ‘retired’ original stock costumes and donations were put aside for preservation, alongside purchases from antique dealers. It is used to study shapes, materials and techniques but also to remind us that human beings once lived and breathed in these clothes. Key items of the collections are viewable via the Heritage Lottery funded website and have been available to the public since 2016.
Keith and Barbara will discuss how these garments have informed the development of the costumes featured in the Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop exhibition, allowing participants to get up close and view the internal construction and hidden details.
This event, limited to 20 people, provides the perfect opportunity to ask questions and view historic garments, sketches and photos not usually accessible to the public.
About the tutors
Keith Lodwick is a writer, curator and theatre and film historian. He is the former Curator of Theatre and Screen Arts at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. At the V&A, Keith was the assistant curator for the major exhibition Hollywood Costume (2012) and he curated the touring exhibition Vivien Leigh: Public Faces, Private Lives. Keith has contributed to a wide range of publications including The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Film and Television Costume Design (2025), George Hoyningen-Huene (Thames & Hudson, 2024), DIVA (V&A, 2023) and Studies in Costume and Performance (Bloomsbury, 2021).
Barbara Kloos is the curator of Cosprop’s Historic Reference Collection. She studied costume design in Hamburg and began her career as a designer for theatre and film, her passion for historic research leading to museum and academic work on the side. Eventually, her admiration for the quality of British costume lured her across the channel from her native Germany. She has managed the John Bright Collection’s social media presence since 2017 and became the collection’s curator in 2023.
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Confirmation email: Once you have made a booking, you will receive a confirmation email detailing all the information you will need prior to your workshop. You will also receive a reminder email one week prior to your workshop.
Registration: Please check your confirmation email for the registration time of your workshop. If the registration time for your workshop is before 11am, please ring the intercom on arrival. For health and safety reasons, it is not possible to admit participants earlier than the registration time.
On arrival: Upon entry, please present your ticket(s) on your device or a note of your booking reference number.
Eating and drinking: No food or drink is permitted in the Museum, other than bottled water. The Fashion and Textile Museum is located in the heart of Bermondsey Street, surrounded by award-winning restaurants, cafes and pubs. So, if you would like to enjoy a meal or a drink before or after your visit, there is plenty to choose from. For more information, check out our plan your visit page or our FAQs.